'Mandala' by Rastko Obradović

'Mandala' serves as the new release from Rastko Obradović who makes his formal introduction through Italy's A.MA Records.

The release of the saxophonist's first solo-helmed project must come with some satisfaction and feel like a project long in the works.  The Serbian born and raised artist earned his degree in Jazz Performance from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and has since that time has continued to cultivate a diverse and varied repertoire rooted in his affection for a wide variety of musical styles.

As a recipient of The Best Young Artist award from Jazz, Rock & Pop Musicians' Association of Serbia in 2019, Obradović has been almost single-minded in his pursuits within music amassing consistent touring opportunities and an impressive amount of collaborative efforts.  Having appeared on projects alongside Martin Nodeland, Jelena Jovović, SJB Project and the Milos Branisavljevic Quartet, Obradović has further released the four-track EP 'Wabi Sabi' as part of a duo project alongside pianist Bojan Zulfikarpašić and helmed 'The Northern Experience' as part of the Rastko Obradović Quartet.

Whilst Obradović's the aforementioned past releases have been presented as quite focused projects, 'Mandala' features a slightly more unhindered display of the saxophonist's musical perspectives.  An album that finds an elegant balance between American sensibilities and a European aesthetic, 'Mandala' serves as an imaginative take on contemporary jazz from an innovative young artist who is clearly not short on ideas.

Obradović may have just delivered his first album through A.MA Records but his history with the label goes back some years now with the saxophonist appearing on a litany of past releases for the label including Sanja Markovic's 'Ascension', Irina Pavlovic's 'The Soulful Heritage' and Milos Colovic's 'To the Beat of My Footsteps', amongst others.  It's certainly fitting that after being a part of so many incredible releases for A.MA Records that Rastko Obradović would finally be bestowed the distinction of his own project with the esteemed recording home.

And providing fantastic support to Obradović throughout 'Mandala' is pianist Vladan Veljkovic, double-bassist Aleksandar Petrovic and drummer Nikola Banovic who each deliver standout performances and sparkling chemistry as a tight-knit quartet.

The brilliant energy of 'Kanda' kicks the project off in scintillating fashion displaying a beautiful warmth to its composition that immediately sets the bar so high for the album's remaining seven tracks; while 'Nemir' serves as a perfect follow-up, the two-part 'Prisoner & the Soldier' delivers as an excellent double-header offering two distinct takes on the theme, both eloquently presented.  The album's closing number, 'Afternoon', caps off a truly excellent and personality-driven album that finds the project reaching its conclusion with the same dexterity that it began with.

The album's Bandcamp page describes the word 'Mandala' as having roots within the concept of a "rogue" or "vagabond" - perhaps a reference to an unbridled and rebellious creative spirit; there is another context of discussion however within the notion of the Sanskrit word "mandala" which translates to "circle".  A symbolic ideal in its own way - as the circle is representative of wholeness and a return to origins, perhaps that's a concept that surmises Rastko Obradović's album best... after years of collaboration, touring and studying, 'Mandala' can best be perceived as a project that finds the saxophonist having come full circle - arriving at a place that fully reflects his own voice and musical identity.

'Liquid Yellow Portraits' by Shingo Suzuki

'Liquid Yellow Portraits' marks the highly anticipated release from Shingo Suzuki now available through the revered Origami Productions.

Origami has long served as a fantastic hub of innovative music releases with projects initially embracing hip-hop, soul and jazz before slowly expanding the label's repertoire to invite more free-flowing and broader sounds.  With past releases by Kan Sano, mabanua and Michael Kaneko, the inclusion of Shingo Suzuki proves a fantastic fit.

The Tokyo-based bassist, keyboardist and producer has steadily been releasing a string of standalone singles under his own name for some time with his initial solo full-length release coming in the form of the hip-hop-centric 'The Abstract Truth' in 2008.

Suzuki's resume has literally burst to the brim since then having focused more on group projects and collaborations in his career.  Perhaps most noted for his work as a band member for the alternative R&B and synth-pop trio Ovall (also Origami Productions stallwarts), Suzuki's extensive musical credits include a litany of collaborations for Japanese-based artists including work with Hanah, Coin Banks, Laidbook and Kenichi Takemoto. 

Boundlessly versatile in his styles and abilities, Suzuki's vast musical projects have seen him tailor his style to accommodate a range of sounds and genres while still reserving just the right sprinkle of distinctive brilliance for his own releases.

In a tantalising stream of initially standalone single releases on Bandcamp over the last few years, Suzuki's jazz-meets-hip-hop inspired compositions have finally been afforded an appropriate home with the release of 'Liquid Yellow Portraits'.  

Featuring some wonderful inclusions on the album, notably from Ruri Matsumura who provides standout vocal performances on the past singles 'You Don't Know (What Life Is)' and the neo-soul gem 'Flower Dance', the album also soars with its charismatic jazz pieces like the brilliant frenetic energy of 'Backwards' and the sublime but assertive 'All in Your Palms'.  Matsumura delivers a further gem with her appearance for the dreamy and captivating 'Miss You Already' which serves as another distinctive album highlight.

'Liquid Yellow Portraits' proves such a fantastic depiction of Shingo Suzuki's incredible talents - personality-filled productions bursting with imagination and charisma that are demonstrative of a phenomenally well-rounded artist in his own right.

'Music of Secrets' by Viktoria Søndergaard

Viktoria Søndergaard marks her debut release on April Records unveiling the full-length 'Music of Secrets'.

For the vibraphonist and composer, Søndergaard's introduction as a solo artist in her own right has perhaps been a long-time coming.  With previous projects including her BARYL quartet, spawning the releases 'Allerede Mandag?' (2021) and 'Hva´ fanden sker der?' (2023), along with the duo project 'Call Me a Princess' from earlier this year alongside double-bassist Klára Pudláková, Søndergaard has continued to ingratiate herself into Denmark's landscape of modern-day jazz luminaries.

We'll come back to those projects shortly, but through each of Søndergaard's projects to date, she's brilliantly able to tap into various facets of herself revealing another intricate layer of her musical make-up and inspirations.

Aside from helming two album releases this year, 2025 has proved an exceptional year for Søndergaard who can also boast serving as the proud recipient of the Carl Prize Honorary Award - a distinction that will no doubt make room in the trophy cabinet alongside her previously awarded Aarhus Jazz Talent Prize and Tivoli Jazz Prize.  Definitively recognised as a fundamental voice in contemporary Danish jazz, it's certainly no surprise that the fine folks over at April Records would ultimately have been keen to include Søndergaard as part of their teaming roster.

'Music of Secrets' positions Viktoria Søndergaard front & centre with excellent support from vocalist Elvira Skovsang, pianist Frederik Blæsild Vuust, double-bassist Ida Duelund and drummer Siv Øyunn.  While BARYL presented a notably personality-laden perspective on improvised jazz and 'Call Me a Princess' delivered a haunting yet sublime and boundlessly imaginative take on the fairytale motif, 'Music of Secrets' opts to pull no punches by delivering Søndergaard's most all-encompassing project to date.

Proudly intertwining styles and genres so eloquently across the album's ten tracks, Søndergaard & company dive head-first into the album delivering rousing pieces like 'Mor, Mor', thoughtful and intimate compositions like 'The Human Noise' and the brilliant charisma of 'It's So Nice'.  While the beautifully rich tone of 'Vi legede i marken' serves as a stunning runner-up, the six-minute wonder of 'Le Soleil le Pain et L’Âme' may very well deliver as the album's fantastic centrepiece as it ebbs and flows across a glorious musical narrative.

Viktoria Søndergaard unveils a genuinely triumphant debut - an album of inspired depth and character, 'Music of Secrets' solidifies the vibraphonist as a genuine visionary whose burgeoning story promises many, many more chapters still to come.

'Never Would We' by Bright Dog Red

"Created entirely with human intelligence."

These words accompany the latest release of Bright Dog Red's milestone new full-length 'Never Would We'.  Perhaps delivered with tongue firmly in cheek, with the increasing prominence of over-the-counter AI software that can emulate all aspects of music from lyrics, instrumentation and even vocals within seconds, declaring the distinction may - in time - prove to be a compulsory disclaimer for all new music.

So for fear of living in a future which ultimately diminishes the human component within new music releases, it may be best that we embrace the treasures while we have them at our disposal.  The great Bill Evans once unwittingly prophesised upon the paradoxical nature of jazz in these times rejecting the idea that it was something to be analysed as an intellectual theorem when it could only be described as "feeling".

If Bill Evans' unrivalled insight holds water then jazz should be safe from artificial intervention for some time yet... and when considering the quintessential human element within the genre, one collective who couldn't place it in safer hands would be New York's Bright Dog Red.  

A collective that epitomise the skill of progressive and improvised jazz, theirs is an artform that has been cultivated over the release of ten albums, including eight released through the revered Ropeadope Records.  (A distinction that places them in rare air alongside Christian Scott and Aaron Dolton.)

Bright Dog Red have chartered a scintillating journey since debuting on Ropeadope with 'Means to the Ends' in 2018.  With each release subsequently immersing itself into inspired new narratives and delving ever deeper into more varied musical constructs and soundscapes, Bright Dog Red have continually treated each new project as a clean slate and opted to boldly dive head-first into the unknown.

Headed-up by drummer and founder Joe Pignato, the Bright Dog Red ensemble for 'Never Would We' comprises bassists Tim Lefebvre and Anthony Berman, bassists and guitarists Jerome Harris and Tyreek Jackson, trumpeter Martin Loyato, saxophonist Mike LaBombard, Cody Davies on sounds and electronics with Matt Coonan, Christian Black and Randal Horton tackling the spoken word portions of the album.

Using the concept of 'denial' as the group's starting point, 'Never Would We' presents ten tracks in the typical Bright Dog Red vein of unpredictability when it comes to musical directions that will be adopted throughout the album.  While there are certainly tracks that embrace their trippy and futuristic take on jazz like 'Tumbling Down' and 'And the Herald Blared', there are also some wonderfully understated tracks that serve as a real treat.  The confident swagger of 'Can't Watch' is a delight as is the nine-minute gem 'Long Arc'; the album's title track finds an effortless comfort in this middle ground where noir jazz meets 90s trip-hop - another fantastic track.

'Never Would We' must surely be unveiled by the band with beaming pride - theirs has been a wonderful career that still finds them rising to the challenge of conveying new ideas and concepts with each go-round.  They have treated their music - and their audience - with respect as they have boldly continue to create using jazz's great weapon... feeling!

'Lumen' by Bill Laurance

The wondrous duality of the great Bill Laurance is perhaps best showcased via two projects that are being unveiled within two months of each other: November of this year will boast arguably the most expansive and ambitious project by the Texan fusion heroes Snarky Puppy and their second recording alongside the revered Metropole Orkest for 'Somni'.  'Somni' will serve as the follow-up to the two factions' previous collaboration - the Grammy-winning 'Sylva' in 2015 - and is a performance recorded over three days in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and featuring over seventy musicians (72, I counted!).  

...Conversely, that recording is preceded by Bill Laurance's 'Lumen'....  A project that positions Laurance solo on a piano in a South London church at 3am.

As I say, very little else could help explain the limitless scope that Bill Laurance has managed to afford himself as an artist and collaborator.  It's a point I may have made for previous Bill Laurance releases but each project continually finds the pianist and composer able to recontextualise his music in accordance to the project he's working on... whether that be the explosive jazz-funk fusion of Snarky Puppy, his two-handers with Snarky founder Michael League, his affections for classical compositions alongside The Untold Orchestra or his work alongside the WDR Big Band. 

Each project boasts a fresh-faced, eagle-eyed clean slate that finds the pianist embracing the challenge of a new page within the Bill Laurance tome.  There's an excellent quote on the 'Lumen' Bandcamp page that finds Laurance describing his approach to the project, "it's simplicity that I'm searching for how to say the most with the least".  It's an elegant and intricate assessment and one that must have hit with something of an ethereal resolution while playing deep into the night.  

'Lumen' thrives within the most intimate of confines and is a record that exists as a result of its very specific time and space.  A spiritual jazz record in the purest sense.  Alice Coltrane once surmised: "The music is within your heart, your soul, your spirit, and this is all I did when I sat at piano.  I just go within."  Again, beautiful words that beg the question of whether 'within' serves as a spiritual connection to a higher entity around us or whether it is a spiritual connection to another plane of ourselves.

Bill Laurance sat at a piano in St Faith's Church at 3am and made a connection with... only Bill Laurance knows that, but listeners have the opportunity to now press play and make their own connections with compositions that are brilliantly sublime and introspective and genuinely their own brand of magic.

'Well, Actually...' by O.N.E.

'Well, Actually...' marks the latest release from new April Records signees, O.N.E.  A long-standing collective in their own right, the fresh-faced quartet also boast the distinction of 'Well, Actually...' serving as their third full-length album.

With previous releases 'ONE' (2019) and 'ENTOLOMA' (2022) available through Audio Cave, O.N.E. have presented themselves as strong advocates for innovative and progressive jazz.  Their unique perspectives feature a healthy dose of improvisation as part of their make-up which again finds them perfectly snug amongst the class of their new April recording home.

Always one to feature inspired takes on European - typically Danish - jazz from the big band aesthetic of Fredrik Lundin & Odense Jazz Orchestra, the all-world encompassing sounds of Kalaha, the lush piano trios of Little North and Kosmos Trio or the neo-soul inspired sounds of Tigeroak.  O.N.E.'s inclusion - wholly deserved - continues to add to April's burgeoning lineage of phenomenal music ensembles.

Comprised of pianist Kateryna Ziabliuk, saxophonist Monia Muc, double-bassist Kamila Drabek and drummer Patrycja Wybrańczyk, O.N.E. flourish on the notion of all band members serving on an equal footing.  A concept reflected in their group's name, the Polish quartet create music hoping to extoll the virtues of unity and oneness in what we are all observing as increasingly divisive times.

Although as a quartet, they admirably serve to downplay any distinct prominence between members, it's hard not to harp on about each of the band member's individual accomplishments.  Ziabliuk, Muc, Drabek and Wybrańczyk all boast mind-blowing resumes that showcase their highly-educated and highly decorated backgrounds and incredible achievements in music.  With each having toured extensively across various bands and ensembles, made numerous festival appearances across Europe and beyond, having performed alongside revered names like Greg Osby and Natalia Kordiak, won a clutch of awards and distinctions, there's very little these immeasurably talented artists can't do which makes their ensemble pairing under the "O.N.E." banner all the more enthralling.

And theirs is an album that thrives from the foursome's charismatic and intrepid performances - from the personality-driven '[solo form]' to the playful and aptly-titled 'Sneaking Around' and the glorious frenetic energy of the album's title track, 'Well, Actually...' makes a definitive statement about the boundless imagination on display here.

'Well, Actually...' will serve as a fantastic continuation of O.N.E.'s story for some and a fresh introduction for others.  Their third outing delivers as a fascinating and philosophical protest against division; an album that up-ends ideals of conformity, beginning its counter argument towards preconceived notions with the quiet challenge: "well, actually..."